Offer US$100000 ‘GoGettaz’ award to reward exceptional business ventures by young Africans in agri-food sector

Johannesburg – Pan-African telecommunications, media and technology group, Econet, and global crop nutrition leader, Yara International ASA, have launched “Generation Africa”, a partnership initiative designed to inspire young African entrepreneurs to invest in the agri-food sector and take advantage of its viable business opportunities.

Generation Africa, which was launched in Johannesburg this week, will reach thousands of young people through its “GoGettaz” competition, which will award US$100 000 in prize money to two exceptional business ventures in the agri-food sector. The partnership initiative will support a cohort of 12 budding young agri-food entrepreneurs to scale and prosper their ventures.

“Africa’s agri-food sector presents a US$ 1-trillion business opportunity1 by 2030, especially when connected with the current technology revolution. Across Africa’s agri-food chain, innovations can be found in how we grow, harvest, process, store, transport, package, sell and consume food. Together with the pioneers of Africa’s next generation, we want to seize these opportunities. Generation Africa will help youth entrepreneurs launch, grow and mature agri-food businesses that will drive job creation, inclusive growth, and better food supply,” said Svein Tore Holsether, President and CEO of Yara.

Africa has about 600 million hectares of arable land, yet it imports US$35 billion worth of food every year – a figure that is estimated to rise to US$100 billion by 2025. At the same time, over 60 percent of young people across Africa are unemployed. Innovative entrepreneurship could retain more value on the continent, helping to counterbalance rural-urban migration, professionalize farming, generate employment and provide affordable, healthy food to Africa’s growing population.

“Africa is full of entrepreneurs. We have more entrepreneurs than any other continent. But where the average age of an entrepreneur is 19 years, the average age of a farmer is 60. The time is now for Africa’s entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and embrace the incredible opportunities that agri-food businesses offer. If we do not, someone else will.” said Econet Founder and Group Chairman Strive Masiyiwa.

Generation Africa’s vision is to strengthen the ecosystem for youth entrepreneurs in the agri-food sector across the continent, allowing them to unlock this untapped potential.

Generation Africa’s GoGettaz competition is open to young agri-food entrepreneurs aged 18-35 from across Africa. Budding ventures can be submitted to the competition via www.genafrica.org by July 15, 2019. Twelve finalists will be selected by an expert jury to pitch live at the African Green Revolution Forum (www.agrf.org) in Accra, Ghana from September 3 to September 6, 2019. Two winners (one man and one woman) will each win US$ 50,000 to grow their businesses with guidance from Generation Africa.

Beyond the “GoGettaz” competition, Generation Africa’s ambition is to inspire at least one million young people to consider the agri-food sector as a viable and profitable business opportunity. This can only be achieved through close collaboration with stakeholders across the continent to develop the entire ecosystem to support young entrepreneurs.

This is Africa’s Generation, according to Masiyiwa: “Never has there been a more powerful moment in history – nor a more digitally-capable generation – to leapfrog Africa’s agri-food sector from a net importer of food to feeding the planet.”

About Yara

Yara grows knowledge to responsibly feed the world and protect the planet, to fulfil our vision of a collaborative society, a world without hunger and a planet respected. To meet these commitments, we have taken the lead in developing digital farming tools for precision farming and work closely with partners throughout the whole food value chain to develop more climate-friendly crop nutrition solutions. In addition, we are committed to working towards sustainable mineral fertilizer production. We foster an open culture of diversity and inclusion that promotes the safety and integrity of our employees, contractors, business partners, and society at large. Founded in 1905 to solve the emerging famine in Europe, Yara has a worldwide presence with about 17,000 employees and operations in over 60 countries. In 2018, Yara reported revenues of USD 12.9 billion. www.yara.com

About Econet

Econet Global Limited is a privately-held multinational conglomerate with operations and investments in mobile and fibre broadband telecommunications, cloud services and data storage, fintech, edutech, e-commerce, tech-enabled on-demand services and solar power to individual and enterprise customers across Africa.

Econet was founded in 1993 by Strive Masiyiwa, who first came to international prominence when he fought a five-year constitutional legal battle leading to the removal of the state monopoly in Zimbabwe’s telecommunications sector. The landmark ruling is regarded as one of the milestones in the opening up of African telecommunications to private capital. www.econetwireless.com